It is rather long, but the interesting part (to me at least) seems to be the last question. I searched on this topic and there was another posted similar that discussed Noam Chomsky from a speech in October, but not on the topic of this particular interview.
He criticizes the left for failing to have an appropriate dialogue with average Americans, and for ridiculing protests on the right, especially those of individuals impacted by the economic situation the most.
Opinions on this will obviously have to do a lot with individual perspective and personal ideology, but feel free to take step back from that for a moment. Is the Democratic Party losing support by ridiculing protestors at these events, fabricated or not?
My thoughts are simply yes, they are. I think the claim that they are fabricated is an ineffective argument against such events, because it is purely commentary, there is no resolution to the underlying issue. It often appears as though Democrats assume that individuals sit down and plot out a rationalized comparative analysis of a situation before them based upon some supposed universal truths in the political realm. Conservatives harnessed the ability to create basic narratives, which utilizes an instant rationalization supported by that narrative. It seems Democrats never embraced it. Everything is instead put through this longer process of rationalization. That can be good or bad, depending on the situation. But if I know what my problem is as an individual and someone provides me with a solution that makes sense and instantly meshes with my brain, will I really be going through the longer process?
Just a note: Personally, I have no interest in talking about the Nazi comparison he makes here, because it was talked about at length in the older post when he made similar comments at speech and there is very little to add to that discussion.
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/23178
He criticizes the left for failing to have an appropriate dialogue with average Americans, and for ridiculing protests on the right, especially those of individuals impacted by the economic situation the most.
Opinions on this will obviously have to do a lot with individual perspective and personal ideology, but feel free to take step back from that for a moment. Is the Democratic Party losing support by ridiculing protestors at these events, fabricated or not?
My thoughts are simply yes, they are. I think the claim that they are fabricated is an ineffective argument against such events, because it is purely commentary, there is no resolution to the underlying issue. It often appears as though Democrats assume that individuals sit down and plot out a rationalized comparative analysis of a situation before them based upon some supposed universal truths in the political realm. Conservatives harnessed the ability to create basic narratives, which utilizes an instant rationalization supported by that narrative. It seems Democrats never embraced it. Everything is instead put through this longer process of rationalization. That can be good or bad, depending on the situation. But if I know what my problem is as an individual and someone provides me with a solution that makes sense and instantly meshes with my brain, will I really be going through the longer process?
Just a note: Personally, I have no interest in talking about the Nazi comparison he makes here, because it was talked about at length in the older post when he made similar comments at speech and there is very little to add to that discussion.
DK: On that note, I'm also looking to think ahead with what's in the future for the labor movement and the IWW. More generally, if you had one piece of advice to offer future generations of Wobbliesespecially in light of the tough financial times that we are facing and will probably continue to face for a long time in the Western worldwhat would it be?
NC: Well, I get a lot of letters from people. When I go home tonight I'll have 15 letters today from mostly young kids who don't like what's going on and want to do something about it, and [they ask me] if I can give them some advice as to what they should do, or can I tell them what to read or something. It doesn't work like that. I mean, everything depends very much on who you are, what your values are, what your commitments are, what circumstances you live in and what options you're willing to undertake, and that determines what you ought to be doing. There are some very general ideas that people can keep in mind; they're kind of truisms. It's only worth mentioning them because they're always denied.
First of all, don't believe anything you hear from power systems. So if Obama or the boss or the newspapers or anyone else tells you they're doing this, that, or the other thing, dismiss it or assume the opposite is true, which it often is. You have to rely on yourself and your associatesgifts don't come from above; you're going to win them, or you won't have them, and you win by struggle, and that requires understanding and serious analysis of the options and the circumstances, and then you can do a lot. So take right now, for example, there is a right-wing populist uprising. It's very common, even on the left, to just ridicule them, but that's not the right reaction. If you look at those people and listen to them on talk radio, these are people with real grievances. I listen to talk radio a lot and it's kind of interesting. If you can sort of suspend your knowledge of the world and just enter into the world of the people who are calling in, you can understand them. I've never seen a study, but my sense is that these are people who feel really aggrieved. These people think, "I've done everything right all my life, I'm a god-fearing Christian, I'm white, I'm male, I've worked hard, and I carry a gun. I do everything I'm supposed to do. And I'm getting shafted." And in fact they are getting shafted. For 30 years their wages have stagnated or declined, the social conditions have worsened, the children are going crazy, there are no schools, there's nothing, so somebody must be doing something to them, and they want to know who it is. Well Rush Limbaugh has answered - it's the rich liberals who own the banks and run the government, and of course run the media, and they don't care about youthey just want to give everything away to illegal immigrants and gays and communists and so on.
Well, you know, the reaction we should be having to them is not ridicule, but rather self-criticism. Why aren't we organizing them? I mean, we are the ones that ought to be organizing them, not Rush Limbaugh. There are historical analogs, which are not exact, of course, but are close enough to be worrisome. This is a whiff of early Nazi Germany. Hitler was appealing to groups with similar grievances, and giving them crazy answers, but at least they were answers; these groups weren't getting them anywhere else. It was the Jews and the Bolsheviks [that were the problem].
I mean, the liberal democrats aren't going to tell the average American, "Yeah, you're being shafted because of the policies that we've established over the years that we're maintaining now." That's not going to be an answer. And they're not getting answers from the left. So, there's an internal coherence and logic to what they get from Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and the rest of these guys. And they sound very convincing, they're very self-confident, and they have an answer to everythinga crazy answer, but it's an answer. And it's our fault if that goes on. So one thing to be done is don't ridicule these people, join them, and talk about their real grievances and give them a sensible answer, like, "Take over your factories."
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/23178